Missing plane located in Utah, 3 passengers found deceased

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»Play VideoMeyer Family Photo courtesy of Gillette News Record
Matt Ahrens, Shyanne Lenz and her mother Trista Meyer have been missing since Sunday afternoon when they left the Fillmore, Utah, airport on their way back to Gillette from California. The three were in a small airplane owned by Ahrens.

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RICHFIELD, Utah — Searchers in central Utah found the wreckage of a plane that matches the description of a missing aircraft that left Bakersfield, Calif., for Wyoming a week ago.

At approximately 9 a.m. Sunday, search-and-rescue teams located the plane wreckage in the mountains about 14 miles to the east of the Fillmore Airport in Richfield, Utah.

Officials from the Sevier County Sheriff's Office are not giving out many details about the crash, however, they have confirmed that the three people aboard the plane were killed.

The missing plane disappeared from radar Sunday shortly after making the refueling stop in Fillmore, Utah. It was en route from Bakersfield, Calif., back to Gillette, Wyo.

The pilot, 37-year-old Matthew Ahrens, his 34-year-old girlfriend Trista Meyer and her 9-year-old daughter Shyanne Lenz were all on board the plane.

Ahren's sister Donna told Eyewitness News in Bakersfield that Meyer texted her own sister in Gillette when they departed from the Fillmore airport, saying they would be there in three hours. That was the last time anyone would hear from those on the plane.

For the past week, search-and-rescue teams have been scouring the mountains of southern Utah, searching for any sign of life or wreckage.

Officials said that they found the plane in the mountains located on the Sevier and Miller county lines in very rough mountain terrain.

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Last Fridays storm brought little rain to the valley floor but it came down hard in the foothills of Breckenridge. Lightning and isolated showers kept me pinned inside my vehicle in an attempt to wait it out. After the rain let up I barely made it out after almost getting stuck in the mud.